Jerry Green gets his due -- at last

Assemblyman Jerry Green sitting in the plaza
of the Park-Madison complex during a 2013 rally.

Jerry Green is finally getting his due, with the "renaming" of the Park-Madison office building and plaza in his honor.

The ceremony will take place this Saturday, September 8 at 10:00 AM in the plaza in front of the building at West Front Street and Park Avenue.

It is a fitting dedication, since Jerry was a prime mover in getting the Union County Improvement Authority to erect the building on the 4-acre plot created by the demolition an entire block in the heart of Plainfield's shopping district in the late 1960s.

The demolition presaged the closing of the famed Tepper's department store after downtown business began to dry up following the Park-Madison demolition and the growing trend of stores moving out to strip malls on Route 22 with their ample parking right at the door.

The UCIA, I am told, actually passed the resolution to name the complex after Assemblyman Green a number of years ago, though no action was ever taken during his lifetime.

When I told him I was annoyed about how long it was taking and that I was considering posting on the blog about it, Jerry asked me to hold off, saying he didn't want me to jinx him. So I held off.

Too bad Jerry can't be here to bask in the limelight.

The notice for Saturday's event also stated that parking will be available in the parking deck.

That is a sore spot. Residents are supposed to be able to park in the deck according to the original development agreement. Though Charlotte DeFilippo stonewalled for years, the Mapp administration supposedly resolved all the outstanding matters with the UCIA -- including parking in the deck and moving the famous "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" clock from across Park Avenue to the plaza.

Yet residents still have no regular use of the deck, and as former Democratic committeewoman Carol Bicket will remind anyone in earshot, the clock has yet to be moved to its location in the plaza.

I hope this naming brings a smile to Jerry as he looks down on us. He deserves the honor.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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